The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has selected the University of Memphis as one of
four academic and industry teams to develop affordable digital tutoring software to
improve the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) knowledge of middle
and high school students.

As winners of ONR’s STEM Grand Challenge, the teams will produce intelligent tutoring
technology that ultimately will be used to enhance the STEM skills of students, sailors,
and Marines while helping to prepare the future naval science and engineering work
force to address emerging challenges to the nation’s defense.

A team of 10 U of M faculty members and five psychology and computer sciences graduate
students will participate in the two-year project.

The selection of the four teams was based on the scientific and technical merits of
their proposals in addressing ONR’s STEM research goals. In addition to the U of M,
winning proposals were submitted by Arizona State University, the University of Massachusetts,
and Raytheon BBN Technologies.

“We are excited about our potential contribution to STEM education,” said Dr. Xiangen
Hu, a professor in the U of M Department of Psychology and the Institute for Intelligent
Systems. “This is a challenge to us, and at the same time is an opportunity for the
University to be one of the leading research institutes in developing advanced learning
technologies.”

“I look to these teams of researchers and their unique approaches with intelligent
tutoring systems to help the Navy, Marine Corps, and our nation in delivering a steady
work force of talented scientists and engineers,” said Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder,
chief of naval research.

The $8 million initiative is designed to spur innovation and creativity in the advancement
of cost-effective digital tutors that tailor instruction to the individual needs and
learning pace of students. The software systems mimic one-to-one interactions between
teachers and students and are expected to improve student academic performance by
two or more letter grades in a short amount of time.

In the first phase, each team will receive up to $1.5 million to develop a digital
tutor that will provide instruction in STEM-related topics. The range of approaches
includes developing techniques for creating realistic and supportive student-tutor
interactions, creating analytic and modeling methods for adapting to students’ learning
capabilities, producing methods for mapping information to an instructional curriculum,
and crafting techniques for maintaining students' active engagement.

At the end of the first phase, the four teams will be judged on how well the tutors
improve students’ knowledge retention, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. One
or two teams will be selected for phase two, which provides another year of funding,
up to $1 million per team, to produce a system that can be used to educate sailors
and Marines.

The second phase of the program will transition the best digital tutoring systems
to naval schoolhouses and laptops. In addition to other efforts the Navy is exploring,
the STEM Challenge will reduce training time and instructor costs while increasing
the technical skills of recruits, sailors, and Marines in the digital age.

Intelligent tutors, or digital tutors, use artificial intelligence systems to evaluate
students’ skills and knowledge in real time. The systems then adjust the subsequent
tutoring methods and problem sets to address the knowledge gaps of each individual
student.